College Ready only works if you're actually ready

Unless you've lived under a rock, you're aware of Biden's push to reduce all existing student loans for borrowers making less that $150K per year by $10,000-- $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients. Many of my friends disagree with this policy, and I understand their reasoning. As someone who has worked in a public high school during the "College Ready" push, please allow me to express why this plan is what is right for America today.

Anyone who thinks things are the same today as they were when they graduated must have graduated this spring. College costs have skyrocketed in the last 30 years-- in fact, the tuition rate for my son's college has increased $12,000 since he entered in 2016. For perspective, my bill for 1988-1990 was $12000 TOTAL. Yea, we need to do something to change the narrative around student loans in America.

There is a lot of data that shows that college graduates make more money than those who don't earn a college degree. For the sake of this argument, I'm not going to touch the gender disparity shown here, which is it's own topic entirely. As someone who had Gear UP programming in her high school, I can ascertain that US public high schools have been pushing kids to go to college for at least the last 20 years-- even when they said they didn't want to go. We'd show them the data that said their life would be better if they went-- even showing the kids who weren't sure they would graduate from high school that they "should" go to college right away. Pre-pandemic, I watched kids agree to loans because they were told that's what they *should* be doing, even when their eyes betrayed some hesitation. You should go, we'd say. It'll be fine...

During the pandemic, I watched kids feel free to say no. I don't want to pay for remote classes. I don't want to go without knowing what's coming my way. I don't want to go. I watched kids regain their voice and choice about what was right for them. Hells to the yes!

Biden's plan is designed to eliminate the debt of the kids who went for a semester or a year, but never earned their degree. For the kids who have the debt because of our pressure, but without the degree to translate to the ability to pay it back. It cost me $40,000 to pay my 1/3 of my MSW; I was able to pay that off during the 0% interest phase of the pandemic because I have a job that pays me for having a Master's degree. I won't benefit from this new program, and frankly, I shouldn't. But, I have friends who graduated with me with $120,000 in debt. $10,000 won't eliminate theirs... but it will ease some of the burden. For students who have earned their bachelor's degree in the last 2 years and are carrying $80,000 in debt, this will help. For those who attended a semester or two of college and can't make ends meet with their minimum wage job-- this will right the wrong WE pushed on them. 

I know there are many who don't agree that we forced kids into a loan they didn't want. But...remember when you were 18 and a senior in high school. If your guidance counselor told you to go to college so you could make more money, and you could get help making that happen financially... would you have known to push back?

The pandemic has highlighted that college is not for every 18 year old high school graduate. It's also shown us that we need those "essential" workers for our economy to function. I see no problem helping those kids who were caught in the crossfire. $10k per loan is set to help those with the least amount of debt the most. And that helps our economy so we all benefit. That is win win for me.

History on repeat

 While I do not think of myself as a history teacher, I have taught history for the last 17 years.  During the 20-21 year, when the majority of my kids were remote, we took a springboard approach to class. We started with the 1918 pandemic, and then jumped around based on what questions the kids had about the causes or effects of said topic. This helped them care a *tiny* bit more because the links were obvious: for me, however, it helped calm my fears about the state of our country.

I never understood why everyone was so happy to get out during the Roaring Twenties-- I guess I just though the kids from the farms were happy to get to the city. After spending my 50th birthday and 25th wedding anniversary in lockdown, I viscerally understood. WW1 overlapped by a pandemic? Damn right I'm gonna party like it's 1920! But, it didn't take long for me to see that this party phase is a significant cause to the Great Depression and fascism... and here we are, today, in a country that is banning books to 'protect' children, hindering the rights of women to 'protect' unborn babies without ensuring that all babies are loved and cared for*, and blindly following a leader who has made it clear that he is trying only to 'protect' white men who have money. It doesn't take a student of history to see the pattern that is emerging. 

I feel a bit like Nemo, trying to convince the fish to SWIM DOWN and break the net. It's not a natural response for us, this fighting against the system. We're trained to follow the rules, listen to authority, and not make a scene. IMHO, the only way we're going to stop the anti-democracy-couched-as-pro-democracy movement is by saying No. We're done with hate, and elitism, and sacrificing the good of the many for the benefit of the few. 

This will take all of us to pull off. It won't be pretty, or necessarily fun. But history tells me it's really our only option.

Until then, I'll be hitting the bar with Frank. Feel free to join me.

*For the record, I am not pro abortion. But I am pro democracy, and pregnancy is not like anything else. I love the months I was pregnant, and am truly sad I wasn't able to do it again. But your body is truly no longer your own. For both first trimesters, I had to take medicine that made ME sick to protect the baby.  I vomited for months, no matter what I did (or didn't) eat. I couldn't have caffeine, or Advil, or too much fish, or, or, or... 

I was thrilled to be doing it, especially since we faced the possibility of not being able to conceive. I was 26, married, with a home and stable income, and more than ready to be a mom. I don't know what it's like to be 19 and desperately trying to get through college so I can get out of poverty. Or dating a violent person. Or pregnant with my rapist's child. Or being told if I conceive again I will die. Those decisions are not mine to make, nor are they that of the government. 

I would love to see access to birth control increase, more funding for social supports to help women keep their baby if they want, or give it to a family with fertility issues. I would love our culture to stop shaming women who get pregnant, or make it easier to become foster and adoptive parents, regardless of marital and housing status. But even then, pregnancy does not compare to any other thing, because there is nothing else a human being does that requires the complete sacrifice of her own body to support the growth of another.